firespirt

That's pretty much how I picked up English since I was a kid. I watched a lot of movies and kids tv shows in English. Sometimes a local channel had the same program in Spanish so there was a good comparison point as to what the English one was saying. That and how widespread American music was at home contributed a lot. It just made me ask questions about what so and so meant. Just getting used to the language, and how it's used by native speakers, helped with my pronunciation later on when I was learning it formally in grade school and beyond.

I think paid lessons has its benefits. Considering you're paying for them, it's a good motivator to pick the language up or the money would feel as if it's wasted on the lessons. Plus, playing for lessons implies that it is professional and while apps and free resources are great, it doesn't beat learning with a professional and credited source. But again, classes build up the base for language learning. The real learning comes from the student and how committed they are. People can be equally as committed with free resources, too so there's that to consider. It really depends on what motivates a person.

On the latter half, that's very much true. One thing that makes a good translation is not a literal interpretation of what is written, but getting the gist and meaning across, even if there are words that are re-arranged or another idiom, for example. Some nuance will always be lost, but there's usually an equivalent in the other language, maybe worded different, but in the larger picture, it fits perfectly.

Well, unless the first thing you learned from the other language is swear words....haha I kid, but seriously, any heightened emotion will pretty much make speaking a second language harder. Like, even I get angry and I can't speak my mother tongue without tangling my words up. It's no different, it's actually worse, with a second or a third language. It might be an interesting exercise to switch over to your second language when you're angry and stick to it.

Hi, I'm firespirt, or just fire. My first language is Spanish and I have English pretty dominated so I've been setting my sights on French. This place seems the perfect place, since we're all ont he same boat to learn even more languages. Besides French, I do want to learn a non-romance language, but I don't know which one, or study Portuguese. I'm pretty intimidated by languages that have different syntax but here's hoping I can overcome!